Overview

Rebuilding trust and visibility through bold storytelling.

The organization offers a non-traditional path to high school graduation for students navigating unique life circumstances, learning preferences, or personal goals.Despite its strong mission and proven impact, OFY’s brand identity had grown fragmented.

The marketing content felt outdated and inconsistent across channels, lacking a clear, cohesive voice. Families assumed the school was an online school, a fraud, or a place where “bad kids” went.

Social media storytelling wasn’t resonating with teens and their families, and internal content planning systems across campuses were siloed and inefficient. Additionally, enrollment marketing efforts on the field weren’t contributing meaningfully to enrollment growth.

My Role

As the Lead Content Strategist on this campaign, I was responsible for defining the narrative and building content systems to bring it to life. My work focused on strategy, voice development, and cross-functional alignment across creative, digital, and school-based teams.
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- Developed the Own Your Different campaign concept and messaging framework
- Led creation of a refreshed brand voice guide grounded in clarity, compassion, and empowerment and shared to all 10+ campus enrollment teams to ensure efficient storytelling across all touch points.
- Created and managed a centralized editorial calendar across 10+ campuses
- Wrote foundational content: campaign headlines, digital ads, landing page copy, email flows, and blogs
- Partnered with designers, video producers, and digital ad teams to ensure brand alignment
- Built a collaborative content document using Google Sheets and templates to streamline school-wide use

The Approach and Process

Content Strategy

- Developed a new brand voice guide focused on being uplifting, human, empowering, and clear
- Created a monthly editorial calendar centered around student milestones, success stories, and school culture
- Designed templates and briefing docs to improve alignment between campuses and central marketing
- Create student success stories into key campaign moments—back to school, graduation, enrollment pushes

Brand Voice & Messaging

- Refined the brand’s voice into four key traits: uplifting, clear, human, and student-first
- Developed core campaign messages that could flex across ad copy, video, blog, and social
- Crafted student-centered narratives to spotlight transformation, not just information

Editorial Strategy

- Created a monthly content calendar aligned with enrollment cycles and student milestones
- Developed campaign blog posts to build trust, drive SEO traffic, and support the sales funnel
- Produced email series and social content tailored to families at different stages of decision-making

Cross-Functional Integration

- Worked hand-in-hand with campus staff to collect student stories and testimonials
- Built internal workflows to manage content requests and cross-campus needs
- Briefed and reviewed all paid media and creative assets to maintain voice and clarity

View Blog Posts

Social Ads - Paid & Organic

Oversaw the social and design team to ensure that copy and content aligned with the brand as well as the campaign theme. This included collaborating with designers and videographers who helped create content and align with the overarching theme and ad goals.

While I believe the content still has room for refinement, this campaign marked a significant step forward in the team’s creativity and ownership. One of the most rewarding aspects of this campaign was seeing the team’s creative growth. When I first joined, they worked best with direct instruction and generally stayed within a familiar content format (photo/video, title, subtitle, CTA). As we launched this campaign, I was thrilled to see them take ownership of their ideas, proactively set their own content creation goals, and produce videos and graphics that pushed beyond their usual style and comfort zone.

Blog Content Strategy & Execution

One of the most critical components of this campaign was developing a blog strategy that could simultaneously:
1. Combat misinformation and build trust with skeptical families
2. Drive organic search traffic for enrollment-related queries
3. Support the sales funnel with content for each decision stage
4. Showcase authentic student stories that proved the OFY difference

Content Pillars

Trust-Building & Myth-Busting: These posts addressed common misconceptions head-on while providing valuable information for families researching alternative education options.

What is a Charter School?
Purpose: SEO target for high-volume searches, establish credibility
Strategy: Educational, authoritative tone; addressed "is OFY legitimate" concerns

A Different Way to Learn: Why OFY Works for Teens Who Need Something More
‍Purpose: Help families self-identify fit, reduce stigma
Strategy: Empowering language; reframed "struggle" as "learning differently

Student-Centered Stories: These posts brought the "Own Your Different" message to life through real student experiences.

Erick Machuka – Overcoming the Odds with Options For Youth
‍Purpose: Show OFY serves real teens with real challenges
Strategy: First-person narrative, vulnerability, triumph arc

Practical Student & Parent Resources: These posts provided actionable guidance for families navigating the enrollment decision.

What's Your Learning Archetype?
‍Purpose: Highlight the diversity of learners and encourage ownership
Strategy: Interactive, fun and shareable content

OFY Alumna and Proud Parent of Four OFY Graduates, Shares How OFY Transformed Her Family’s Educational Journey
‍Purpose: Show Parent voice and their perspective on the school
Strategy: Empathetic, language that resonates with parent audience

Website Updates

Oversaw the development of top-level and regional campus/school websites, collaborating closely with the web developer to ensure alignment with brand standards and functionality goals.

Outcomes:
1. Increased awareness and engagement through "Own Your Different" messaging
2. Campaign adopted organization-wide and used across social, web, and print
3. Elevated brand tone and messaging consistency
4. Campaign message resonated with key audiences (families, students, internal stakeholders)
5. Positive internal feedback from principals and CCs
6. Supported team-wide alignment on mission and identity

Key Takeaways

Leading this campaign reinforced for me that success in education marketing is rooted in authenticity. Students can instantly tell when messaging is genuine—and they respond when they feel spoken to. We were intentional about creating an multichannel experience, understanding that every touchpoint matters—from a QR code on a bus to a video on TikTok. Each moment was an opportunity to reinforce our message and build trust among families. But perhaps the most meaningful takeaway was the power of storytelling. We invited students to see that different doesn’t have to have negative connotation to it, in fact, it is what brings success and change. By helping them own their different, we created a campaign that felt both bold and deeply personal.

Options for Youth